On 2015-07-03 8:44 AM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:46:32 AM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2015-07-03 6:42 AM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
Whilst the article is interesting the Comments section below it
is even more interesting largely because of the many
anti-bicycles on the road comments. A lot of those comments
complain about what we hew call 'Scofflaw bicyclists' who ride
willy nilly.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...141935846.html
Then there are car drivers who are hell-bent on "clearing the road of
cyclists" like it just happened around he
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/cri...e26112064.html
The picture illustrates why I agree with the notion in the
Canadian article that more bike infrastructure is needed. It's a
miracle that this cyclist survived. The first cyclist was just
side-swiped but the two others were hit full brunt from behind at
high speed. IIRC one was catapulted across the road to the left and
the other one crashed into the windshield.
-- Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/
My experiences with bicycle lanes in Ontaro Canada is that they are
crap ad are more dan gerous than no bicycle lane. I'm trying to get
across town in a reasonable amou nt of time an d i don't need to have
the aggravation of trying to move from the far right bike lane over
to make a left turn. If I'm riding in a traffic lane i find is far
far easier to make that left turn. ...
I don't have problems with that. Ahead of time I move over to the center
of the road and hold out my left hand. Car drivers generally understand
and pass me on the right unless they also want to turn left. During rush
hour getting to road center can be an issue but the same is true on
roads without bike lanes because of an endless row of passing cars.
... As far as i'm con cerned fully
segregated bicycle only lanes are an abomination and one had better
have highly puncture resistant tires because those segregated lanes
aren't cleared very often - heck even the right hand painted strip
bicycle lanes are full of debris and you risk your tires every single
time you ride in one of those bicycle lanes. ...
That is indeed an issue since the bike lanes aren't cleaned well or
sometimes not at all. I mounted Gatorskins plus tubes with 0.120" or 3mm
wall thickness - problem fixed. When I am on my MTB that is even better
equipped, knobby tires, 0.160" or 4mm wall thickness tubes, plus tire
liner, plus a regular tube over the tire liner. After I did all that I
never again had flats. Ever.
... Agawin making a left
turn is very hard and dan gerous to do in a right hand bicycle lane.
What's one supposed to do - rided through the intersection, stop nd
then reposition oneself in the direction one wishes to travel?
I just hold out my left hand and slowly move leftward. Many drivers will
continue to hurriedly pass me but there nearly always comes one who
slows down for me. Maybe another cyclist behind the wheel, or just a
friendly person.
About the only thing good about many bicycle lanes is that they get
the really slow bicyclists out of thetraffic lane and that allows a
smoother flow of other traffic including fast bicyclists.
A lot of bicycle lanes simply reduce bicyclists to second class
citizens.
Not around here, they are used by every one including fast road bikers.
My favorite are totally segregated paths though. Like the one I am going
to use later today, singletrack. About the only chance to be mowed down
by anything motorized would be if an alien spaceship had an engine
failure right above.
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/